“As I said earlier, I know of no doors ahead.”
“And the wall?” Venser said. “Is just ahead, I suppose?”
The guide nodded.
“So we are flanked,” Elspeth said.
“It seems so,” the guide said.
“Then let’s run and see if there is a new doorway in the wall,” Venser said.
But Elspeth barely ran. She jogged along behind Venser and the guide, and when they reached the wall she stood staring behind. Venser and the guide began feeling for inconsistencies on the smooth wall, but found none. Elspeth continued staring back.
“I won’t go back into their care,” Elspeth said.
Venser and the guide had moved on to the floor, and found nothing. When Elspeth spoke, Venser stood and walked over to her. By then he could feel the tramp of metal feet and heavy machinery through his boots. Elspeth turned as Venser approached.
“I will not go back into their prisons again,” Elspeth repeated.
“So you say,” Venser said.
Elspeth looked down at his belt, where his dented helmet was strapped. “What will you do with it?”
“Mend it when I have more energy,” he said.
The floor was starting to vibrate hard. The guide appeared out of the darkness. “They are a very large force,” he said, breathless from running. “And they are looking for something.”
“They are looking for the fleshling,” Venser said. “At least she is away with Koth and not here.” Venser looked over his shoulder, half expecting the fleshling and Koth to step out of the shadows at his pronouncement.
Elspeth drew her sword out of its scabbard. She felt better than she had in years, and her sword gleamed brighter than ever.
“This is a force we cannot hope to prevail against,” the guide said.
“What other options do we have?” Venser said.
“You can jump away,” Elspeth said.
“But I won’t.”
“But you should. Go. Attack them from the rear if that gives you the justification you need. As I remember, you were able to give me justifications for retreat earlier in this quest. I am giving you the same for teleporting.”
Venser cocked his head at Elspeth. “Are those tears on your cheeks?”
“Heroes shed no tears,” Elspeth said.
From beyond Venser’s blue wisps came the calls of the enemy. As Elspeth watched, a horde broke into view. They were all shapes and sizes, legs and elbows jabbing out and eyes iridescent. Long-legged shanks and howling mouths filled with chipped and jagged teeth-all charged the small circle of blue light.
Elspeth, her teeth gritted and tears streaming down her face, charged. Her cry was so fierce and her form so terrible, that the first line of Phyrexians shied and fell back at her advance. Her sword was held above her head and it shined like the very essence of metal in the darkened room. When she struck, the sword’s blade became a blur. Phyrexians fell around her, first three then more. Soon there was a pile of twisted, skeletal bodies around her. But still she did not stop.
Venser breathed four breaths, and with these he pulled every ounce of mana he could tether or muster from the world around. His ears became full with the ringing of its arrival, and soon his brainpan felt as though it would overflow. Phyrexians ran to him and Venser reached out and seized the first one’s arm, bending its body so it fell, baying, to the floor. In the next moment he blinked away and appeared in the very middle of the horde, where he began tapping. Each tap sent a pulse through the metal exoskeleton. The pulse traveled the raceway of metal, picking up speed and amplifying itself. By the time it reached the brains of the creatures, it was powerful enough to cause a massive attack. The creatures fell seconds after he touched them.
There were piles of dead Phyrexians laid out over the shadowy circle of blue light. Few Phyrexians remained, and those left were being dealt with by Elspeth, who had begun slashing through them one at a time. For one mad second, Venser thought they might actually prevail.
Then more Phyrexians howled into sight. Many more of them, huge levelers, nattering micronaughts, and stinking long-legged beasts with hammered-together armor and black holes for eyes. A force three times again as large as the one they had decimated.
Venser blinked back to Elspeth’s side. The white warrior glanced at him. Her face was sheathed in sweat as she went back to hoisting her sword and slashing it down. Venser’s arms burned and his legs felt flimsy and useless.
The new force of Phyrexians fell on them. Venser was forced back. He looked over just in time to see a pack of large Phyrexians encircle Elspeth so that he could only see the tip of her sword doing its grim work. Then, the sword’s tip, too, disappeared from sight.
This was when he could disappear, Venser knew. This was when he could blink into the darkness and away. He was sure that the guide was out in the darkness waiting. In all likelihood he could find him. But then what? He could not leave, as infected as he was with the Phyrexian oil. He turned back to the Phyrexians.
What had Elspeth said?
‘Heroes shed no tears.’
The Phyrexians hurled themselves onto him, knocking him over. They were on him, smelling like the sewer and popping their joints as they raked their frenzied claws over him. He could not move under the weight of them.
“Hold.”
The voice came loud and clear, and the Phyrexians froze. Venser felt a cold drip on his forehead. A huge Phyrexian was dripping black oil on him from its left eye socket.
“Pull them up,” the voice said again.
Venser was yanked to his feet.
“Good to see you again and all that,” Tezzeret said.
Venser opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. Elspeth, still struggling, was pulled into the circle.
“You?” she said.
Tezzeret yawned. “I know, it’s me again. I’m looking for the flesh being.”
“Is that why you attacked the rebels?” Venser said.
Tezzeret ignored him and looked at Elspeth, raising his eyebrows.
“She is not here,” Elspeth said.
“I see that,” Tezzeret said. “Where, oh, where did she run off to? A party somewhere?”
“She left us before you arrived,” Elspeth said.
Tezzeret looked at Elspeth for a long time. Then he turned to Venser and stared at him. Venser could feel a tickle in the center of his brain, and he knew that Tezzeret was searching for truth. Venser blocked the intrusion, but Tezzeret clearly got enough.
“That is unfortunate,” Tezzeret said. “We will have to keep looking. You both will be going back to Glissa for skinning.” Tezzeret turned and began walking away. He gestured back at them as he walked. “I don’t know why. You will have to ask her.” The Phyrexians parted and he walked between them.
Venser and Elspeth were hoisted. With the screech of rusted metal on metal the Phyrexians began to run. They ran their prisoners across the room. When they reached the wall, hours later, the Phyrexians in the front stopped and began looking at the wall, feeling at it with their claws. The lead Phyrexians scraped at the metal, but no opening occurred, neither was there an eyeway in evidence. They waited for Tezzeret to come forward, but he did not.
When it was clear that Tezzeret was not with them anymore, Venser leaned over to Elspeth.
“Tezzeret must have guided them,” Venser whispered to Elspeth. “They cannot find the portal without him.”
And it seemed to be true. The Phyrexians stood at the wall for many hours. First it was one and then all of them poked, scraped, and struck the metal wall. No portal opened.
